Next
by PeachDestroyer
Summary: After Akane went missing Kogami joins Ginoza and the rest of the new Division One to explore her strange disappearance, even if this means he has to return to Japan... Secrets will be exposed and lives lost as they have to face a far more dangerous enemy as expected in order to find Akane. / Set around 3 years after S1.
1. Prologue

**It's my first fanfiction in this fandom and I'm quite excited. Also I'm not a native English speaker and learn it in school. Still I hope that my writing isn't that bad as I assume. However, when I estimated my skills wrong, I'm sorry.**

**I hope that this story is kind of enjoyable.**

**(Note: The only pairing I have is Kogami and Akane. And I hope it's okay.)**

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**Prologue:**

**The Wandering Souls Knows No Rest**

_"Ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows no rest"_

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Fresh air from the sea touched his face and icy wind blew through his hair. He had his eyes closed and listened to the calmly sound of the waves moving back and forth. And every time they came forth, they made the soles of his shoes wet. He didn´t mind.

He remembered the last time he had been at a beach. Back than he had been around five years old and his parents had taken him to a beach for a little daily trip. He remembered that his mother had been worried he could eat the sand or drown himself in the water. His father had to tell her over and over again that they are watching and that their son was too intelligent to do something like this. At the end of the day he had eaten a bit of sand and managed to get dirty all over his small body. Even if his mother nearly got a heart attack back than, this had always been one of his good memories.

Three years later the Sibyl System had taken over Japan. After years of preparations they had finally done it and he could remember how excited his mother had been after the System had been announced. She had always been a careful woman who got worried easily. For her the System meant safety and a light sleep. His father had laughed because of her excitement and he himself grinned because he had never seen his mother like that. But still the day the System came to life had always been one of the darkest days in his life.

One day, just one day, before the System took over everything his father had been killed by some maniac. Hadn´t he overworked that day, had he done it the next day, he would be still alive. With the System it had been almost impossible to kill someone on a open road, even it was late and the town slept.

They had got the message about his father´s dead a few minutes before midnight. Kogami Hayate had died just thirty minutes before midnight ‒ thirty minutes before the beginning of Sibyl. His mother always said that if the System had been secretly put on maniacs like the one who killed her husband never took their chance to commit one last crime before they probably would never had another chance to do anything.

In fact, the Sibyl System had took his father from him, took his life and now it took his. Kogami Shinya had left his homeland Japan just three months prior because he turned his back to the System and handled against its judgement. Because of that he was now a public enemy and he doubted that he could ever return to his old home. And he felt guilty that the dreams of the girl would never be fulfilled.

One month ago he had contacted this girl, Tsunemori Akane, his former superior, and she had sounded so relieved to hear his voice. She had always been kind of a joyful, optimistic girl and he couldn´t help but smile as she said she believed they would meet again someday, not as Inspector and Enforcer but as normal people. But Kogami could never return to Japan and he wouldn´t allow that she threw away her bright future just because she wanted to follow him. Someone like him didn´t have the right to destroy someones life, even if she had been hurt as he left. But he didn´t have a choice and she knew it.

Kogami wondered if she was doing well. She had taken the position of Sheperd One after Ginoza Nobuchika became a latent criminal. She had to lead a whole Division, just with a newbie by her side. Not long ago she had been one by herself but she had rapidly grown out of it. Of course she had Ginoza who worked now as an Enforcer under her and Kunizuka Yayoi, probably even analyst Karanomori Shion, but they couldn´t help her with everything.

When they had talked one month ago he had been ‒ to his surprise ‒ relieved himself to hear that Akane was alive and healthy. Since the day he flew he wondered day and night if she had been punished afterward by the System or the Bureau because she couldn´t prevent that Kogami killed Makishima Shogo, someone the System wanted alive. He could never have forgiven himself if something like this had happened. After all this hadn´t been her fault. It was all his.

He air was cold on his skin and he opened his eyes. He saw the blue-green sea which seemed to be eternal. She was somewhere by the other end of this sea, this ocean. And he wondered if she looked onto the ocean too, in this time, in this moment. And if she dreamed about a future, so beautiful and bright and eternal like the ocean. And if in this dream of a far, far future he was included.

He had thought he could forget everything and let it go. After all he had to build up a whole new life for him. Holding on the past wasn´t helpful. Especially if you knew you couldn´t go back. That you had to live on. Because it was the only thing you could do or you would just hurt yourself. And he really hoped she knew it too.

Still he lingered more and more to the past, to his home, as he left it more and more behind. He didn´t find his peace, even if he killed Makishima, he was still a restless soul and he probably would never be something else. He could only hope that Akane wasn´t like him.

Kogami stood still for a moment, still listening to the tranquil sounds of the water, letting them wash over him, letting their tranquility fall over him, and then turned to go. He had to sleep early when he wanted to catch his train tomorrow.

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**I hope you liked this chapter, this prologue.**

**I'm currently working on chapter three and I hope that enough people read this story, so I can happily continue!**

**Note: The name of the chapter and the little quote at the beginning derives from a poem named "Loveless". And if you already knew, you should know that this is a poem of _Final Fantasy VII - Crisis Core_. The one Genesis always quotes.**

**Have a nice day!**

**PeachDestroyer**


	2. Gathering of Old Friends

**Hey. Time for the first chapter, I think... ?**

**I ****_really_**** hope my English's okay. And you can read everything fluently.**

**Also I forgot to say the last time: Sorry, if the characters are a bit OOC. I'm afraid that I can't catch them properly... also some OOCnesses are on purpose! For example, Gino's... (you ****_will_**** find out why :) )**

**But now: Enjoy reading! ^^**

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**Chapter One:**

**Gathering of Old Friends**

_"A bond between souls is ancient - older than the planet."_

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He finally found him. After months of research and sleepless nights he finally found him.

He had put so much effort into this search than he ever did. And yet he was standing outside of his door and he didn´t knew what to say if he kicked the door open and would see him on the other side.

Of course he had many things to say, different things, more and less important. But he didn´t know how he should start. Next to him was standing a girl, just twenty years old with long dark brown hair tied up in a messy bun with an orange ribbon. She wore a black suit with dress pants and a white shirt ‒ similar to the clothes their superior always wore. Three years ago she had been assigned as a Inspector at the Public Safety Bureau. But after three years of work she was still a newbie who often did mistakes and someone always had to watch after her. Still she was a good girl and he was more than thankful to her that Shimotsuki Mika allowed him to do this search and went along with him, because Enforcers couldn´t go out without an Inspector.

Yet Inspector Shimotsuki Mika was standing next to him, considerately waiting for him, Enforcer Ginoza Nobuchika, to do his next step. She wasn´t even looking at him, probably not wanting him to think she would hurry his actions. After a while Ginoza took a deep breath and kicked the door open. He rushed in and Mika followed him.

Two months. It took him two months to find him. Because if he found his old colleague and friend, he would find the person he was actually searching for. Or so he thought. He couldn´t imagine her being somewhere else than here, here on the other side of this door. And he realised that he didn´t know what to say to her either. Of course, she broke a promise he made her to give him. But he could understand her. In those three years of insecurity about the whereabouts of their old friend Ginoza had not often thought about searching for him, hunting him down. But this probably tortured her over the last three years not only in the daytime but also in her dreams.

He had even thought that it would be him to be more worried about their friend in those last years, because she had known him just for a short period of time and he had been best friends with him since high school. In the months the three of them had worked together, back then when Ginoza still had been an Inspector, he already did recognised that there had been something between them, but he didn´t bother himself to really think about it. For him this had been something so insignificant like a leaf falling from a tree back then. But after his disappearance his sight had begun to open and he had finally seen it, _really_ seen it, how much hurt Tsunemori Akane had been after that. And he finally realised that this thing, this thing he couldn´t quite categorise, was something immensely, something powerful. So powerful it drew them together and hurt them if the other one was not around.

Ginoza and Mika stood in a floor. Holograms were on, painting the walls and floor wooden and old. Warm, golden light filled the floor. They took a few steps into the apartment and then someone appeared on the other side of the floor.

His hair was a bit longer than the last time he saw him and he wore a loose shirt and surprisingly jeans, but beside that he still looked like the same Kogami Shinya he knew, with the sharp grey eyes and the face with the hard and delicate lines. His eyes widened as he recognised Ginoza and he frowned as he saw Mika.

_Of course_, Ginoza thought. _He doesn´t know her._

"Gino?", Kogami said and he sounded a bit amused but mostly surprised. A short laugh escaped his mouth.

"I never thought you would be the one standing in my floor someday. I´ve always imagined... " ‒ he briefly hesitated ‒ "I´ve always imagined that Inspector Tsunemori would be the one"

Ginoza suddenly felt something heavy in his chest. _No... please no..._

"Does... does that mean Inspector Tsunemori isn´t here?" he asked.

Kogami frowned.

"Should she?" And then his astonishment and bewilderment left his face and gave their places to realisation.

"What happened, Gino?" he asked and Ginoza swallowed hard. He had been so certain that she would be here. Where else could she be but here?

That Tsunemori Akane would be in the end somewhere else than by Kogami Shinya never crossed his mind. Just because he wouldn´t let the thought enter his head that something more serious could have happened to her than just the fact that she couldn´t withstand her deep desire to see Kogami again.

"Gino – _what happened?_" Kogami asked again, his voice hard and more or less surprisingly fearful, still it didn´t shake. He would never allow himself to let his voice shake, to let his wall fall. And because of that, Ginoza knew this special bond between him and the Inspector really existed, that he had been right. That her pain had never been one-sided like she had always thought.

The poor Mika who was looking between them had no idea what was going on. Naturally she knew about Akane but she didn´t know Kogami and had not the slightest idea how deep the relationship between them actually was. Ginoza doubted that he knew it either, probably even Akane and Kogami had no idea. But still she didn´t say a thing. Let the Enforcer his freedom. She knew that it was a thing between those two men.

Again Ginoza took a deep breath. He didn´t know how his old friend would react to this information exactly. But he knew that he would be furious.

"Tsunemori... Inspector Tsunemori Akane is missing... for two months"

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**In fact I never wanted to give a quote before every beginning of a chapter but I always liked something like this and thought: "When I wanted to do it for some chapters, why not for all?". So every chapter has a quote! Yey!**

**This one is from Dianna Hardy's _The Witching Pen_. I never read it, but I found the quote and thought it would fit for this chapter.**

**Also: Even if it was revealed how Kogami's mother is named (Her name is Tomoyo!), his father's name wasn't. So the "Hayate"-thing isn't canon. I forgot to say this in the last chapter...**

**I hope you liked the last chapter and this one and it would make me really happy if you reviewed!**

**Have a nice day!**

_**Momo**_

**_- currently working on chapter six_**


	3. The Disappearance of Tsunemori Akane

**Another chapter!**

**I'm currently really happy and updated every story which is not aborted on the German version of and said... "Why not the _Next_ too?"**

**I'm really happy that so many people read this! *being all happy and stuff***

**I hope my writing's okay.**

**Also... warning OOCness on Kogami's side, Ginoza's side... on everyone's side, in fact. But these are the ones appearing. Along with Mika, but we don't know her that much, so I had no choice than creating a nature for her on my own. And I hope my efforts weren't just poor.**

**Okay, enough talking.**

**Enjoy reading!**

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**Chapter Two:**

**The Disappearance of Tsunemori Akane**

_"Such silence has an actual sound, the sound of disappearance"  
_

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Kogami took the news better than expected. He didn´t killed some of his furniture or punched a hole into his wall. He just stood still, his face hard and starring at Ginoza.

"What do you mean, she´s missing?" he asked slowly, piercing his old friend with his gaze.

Ginoza sighed. "You know what I mean, Kogami. She isn´t there, she´s missing. Two months ago she entered the Bureau the last time and then vanished. First the Division thought she caught a cold but then she just didn´t come back. Also she didn´t reported to the Chief that she was sick. Or did she report anything to anyone. Nobody knows where Tsunemori is. I thought she would be with you. That she finally found you and hurried after you before you could change your location. Even if it is not my business what she decides to do with her life, I just wanted to be sure that Tsunemori really was with you. So I did some researches and found you. I was quite surprised that you was in China. I always thought you would already be somewhere in Europe or America and not in Asia anymore"

Kogami run his hand through his thick black hair. His grey eyes were unreadable.

"Where you working on a case at that time?" he wanted to know.

"No" Ginoza said after a while. "Because of that I thought she would be here"

Kogami run his hand again through his hair, letting it stuck out into weird directions. Then he turned and walked into a room and Mika and Ginoza followed him. It was a living room, sparely decorated. With only a little table, a sofa, some chairs and a little bookshelf. Kogami let himself fall onto the sofa, gesturing them to sit down too. After everyone had caught a seat and Mika had finally closed the front door Kogami began to talk.

To Ginoza´s surprise he looked over to Mika who widened her dark brown eyes as she recognised that Kogami laid his look on her.

"I´m sorry. I didn´t introduce myself. My name is Kogami Shinya, former Enforcer of the Public Safety Bureau in Tokyo and now a fugitive"

"Nice... nice to meet you Kogami Shinya-san. I heard a lot about you. I´m Shimotsuki Mika"

He leaned back on his sofa.

"So you´re the new Inspector of Division 1? The one who replaced Gino?"

Mika nodded. "Indeed"

"What kind of things did you hear about me?"

She blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You said that you heard a lot about me, Inspector Shimotsuki. What kind of things did you hear?"

She briefly looked over to Ginoza and then swallowed. "I know that you were an Enforcer and an Inspector before you killed Makishima Shogo and had to leave Japan because the System wanted him alive and didn´t approve the fact that you turned against them"

Kogami´s grey eyes were dark and it was impossible to get to know what he was thinking right now. _What does he want?_ thought Ginoza and looked to them.

"Go on, Inspector. What do you also know?"

"You knew Kagari Shusei and Masaoka Tomomi and worked for the Bureau for eight years", Mika said.

"Go on", urged Kogami.

_Why do you avoid the fact that Tsunemori is missing?_ Ginoza thought. _Why do you keep asking such non-relevant things?_

Again Mika swallowed. "You... You were also quite close to Akane-san"

Kogami closed his eyes and breathed out.

"So... what do you mean with... 'close'?"

Ginoza could see how Mika struggled with herself to stay calm. "You... you were colleagues, partners. And possibly friends. Akane-san often worried about you, asked herself where you went and hoped you would be save and happy wherever you are, Kogami-san"

He opened his eyes again, the colour of them darker than before.

"I was her subordinate, but for her we were partners. I don´t think we were ever friends"

He stood up, going to a window and looking outside, watching the shimmering lights of the city which were reflected in his eyes and slightly illuminated his sharp face.

"So... she was worried about me? She told that to you?"

Mika nodded again. "I... I asked her why she was sometimes looking far away and why her eyes turned so sad when she did while we had lunch together. She smiled sadly and told me about you. How you had to leave the country and she was still hurt after all the time, even if she usually doesn´t show it"

For a few minutes everything was silent. Kogami still looked outside, the lines of his face now frozen.

"So... Tsunemori is missing?" He rubbed his neck after some time. "What exactly did happen, Gino?"

His eyes narrowed. "Kogami, first you nearly freak out because of Tsunemori and then you ask Shimotsuki some silly, unimportant questions, only to get back to Tsunemori again"

"First of all you kicked open my door", he said bitterly.

"Oh, come on, Kogami. You just wanted to know if she already gave you up. That she had been stronger and would not be so immensely worried about you like you are about her", Ginoza snapped and the silence returned for a bit. Again it was Kogami who spoke first.

"What exactly did happen, Gino?" he re-asked, making him furious. But before he could say one more thing, Mika raised her voice.

"After Akane-san had been absent from work for three days and we got to know that she never reported some kind of illness, we went to her apartment", she said, clearing her throat. "We found nothing suspicious. No marks of a fight, nothing was missing. No note, nothing. Her jellyfish, Candy, also witnessed nothing. So Ginoza-san thought she must be here or at least where you are, Kogami-san"

He again rubbed his neck. "No fighting marks? Nothing missing? Did you see the recordings of the street cameras?"

"Yes, we did. But nothing suspicious on them too. At exactly 22 o´clock Akane-san entered the building where her apartment is and doesn´t come out after that. It´s like... it´s like she just _vanished_"

For a moment Kogami said nothing, probably thinking about the possibilities. "Tsunemori, if she really hunted after me, would already be here. I wanted to move every month into a new city, but I decided to stay here three months ago. I thought in this unusually small city, nobody notices, nobody would find me. Probably she got caught on her way here. But then they would have hunted after me too. Also, she would never just run away. I see no point, why she should do something like that", he said more to himself than to Ginoza or Mika. Then he looked to the young Inspector.

"Do you know if she made herself enemies? She was an Inspector after all"

Mika thought a while about it. "I don´t think so. Everyone we hunted down in the last three years is either in medical care or dead. And I think Akane-san wasn´t the kind of person to have any enemies, even as an Inspector"

Ginoza had followed the little conversation of those two without interrupting, but now he couldn´t withstand anymore.

"I don´t want to say this, but of all people you are possibly the only one able to find Tsunemori. Not only because you were the one of us who was the closest to her"

Kogami looked over to his old friend. His eyes briefly flashed up.

"So you did not befriend her _in three years_? I´m disappointed, Gino"

Ginoza´s eyes darkened. "We... we grew a bit closer over the course of the years, but after your disappearance she never quite opened up to anyone again. She talked to us and seemed fine and as always, but in fact she avoided us, more or less"

The former Enforcer again turned to the window and silence filled the room. After some time he left the room without saying a word, leaving Mika and Ginoza on their own in the living room.

"Do we really need his help, Ginoza-san?" whispered Mika.

"It would make it easier to find Inspector Tsunemori. He, of all people, knows her the best", said Ginoza dryly. He didn´t like the fact that he had to rely on Kogami.

"But he _left_", replied she. "Even if we truly need his help, he left without saying a thing. I don´t think he will help us"

"He will", Ginoza said definitely.

Mika blinked. "How will you know? I know that Kogami Shinya had been the best of you back then. But he is a fugitive now. And I don´t think he can help us when he gets imprisoned or killed, trying to enter Japan. Also, even if Akane-san and he were once colleagues, it doesn´t seem that he really cares about her. He himself said that they were never friends"

"He pretends, he´s a pretender. He does care about Tsunemori. But he would never say this aloud. Kogami isn´t that kind of guy. And he will help us to find her. You will see"

"But that doesn´t solve the problem that Kogami Shinya is a public enemy in Japan... ", Mika started, but cut off as Kogami entered the room, a strange looking helmet in his hands.

"Sorry, it took a bit time to find it. Good that I didn´t throw it away. And I really hope you didn´t joke about Tsunemori"

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**The quote is by Suzanne Finnamore.**

**Oh, I really enjoy these quotes. It's funny to find one, picking one, laughing and smiling on all the others you find while searching. It's great.**

**Hm... see you next time!**

**Momo**

_**- who got distracted by the sequel and is still working on chapter six.**_

**PS: Little question: If I had to upload a chapter with over 6000 words, should I cut it in two or upload it as a whole? (NOT, that this sequel-chapter is that long... *whistling innocently*)**


	4. For the First Time

**Yey! Another chapter!**

**And thank you, KazeLand, Sakura Crystals, Nakamura Arashi and the two anons - el and mariaelennaella - for your reviews! And for all the others who follow and favo!**

**And this time we finally get to know something about Akane - even if not about her current situation.**

**I hope I didn't do that much mistakes and Akane's not that much OOC!**

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**Chapter Three: **

**For the First Time**

_"Luck always seems like it belongs to someone else"_

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_Two months ago_

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She breathed heavily as she run. Her legs began to protest, even if she had always been good in long distance running. Also her left arm hurt. She didn´t had the time to pull the broken pieces of glass out.

It was August, but the night was unusually cold and she shivered. Or she only felt that way because she only wore a thin light blue nightgown and her feet were bare. She didn´t have any weapons nor had a place to hide. If she was found, it would mean her end. But she wasn´t someone who gave up easily. Or immediately lost all hope. She was a optimist, a believer, and she knew that she could survive if she would just stay vigilant.

Going back to her apartment, wasn´t an option. Neither could she go to the apartment of her fellow Inspector Shimotsuki Mika. It would just cause trouble to the girl and she didn´t want to drag an out-stander into this. This was her business and her´s only. Mika didn´t have to do anything with it. And she would never forgive herself if she would die, only because her superior was cold and got herself into serious business. _Also_, she thought, Mika´s _home is probably being watched. So I can easily be caught if I want to go there._

As well she couldn´t go to her old friend Minase Kaori. On the one hand she couldn´t go because of the same reason she couldn´t visit Mika, on the other she didn´t speak to her much after the death of their friend Funahara Yuki.

_Yuki._

By the sole thought of her deceased friend her heart seemed to turn into ice. For a short period of time Tsunemori Akane let herself drift away by the thought of her friend. Then she shook her head and focused on the more important thing in this moment. Yuki died three years ago. She grieved enough and this was definitely not the right time to fall into sorrow.

Now she had to run. She had to survive. And even if she never wanted to do something like this ‒ she had to find a place she could flee to.

Akane walked through the dark streets of Tokyo, shivering. She was not able to put her arms around her, she barely felt her left one being _there_. Her feet were also cold and every step on the hard ground hurt her. If she had had the time to slip into a pair of shoes...

Carefully she walked along. She had to as far from her apartment as possible. And she had to look out after her haunter. After Akane had jumped out of her window she had been glad she was still alive. Fortunately, her apartment was located in the third floor and not in the sixtieth. Also she had taken more training lessons in the past three years to get her body strong. She was relieved that the hard work had paid off.

After a while she entered a quite unfriendly block. But it was strangely not unfamiliar. A smile sneaked onto her face. Here she had had her very first case. With the smile in her face she walked deeper into the block.

It had been her first day at work and she already had a case, a quite serious one. Akane could remember everything like it had been yesterday: The man who had kidnapped this woman, the paddy wagon, the Dominators...

She looked behind her. Nobody followed her. Just a few strange looks because she was barefoot and was just wearing a nightgown. Akane avoided the looks of the others, just walked along into a old building. She ensured that nobody was there and then seated herself into a corner of this building. Hopefully nobody did see her entering. At least here weren´t any street scanners.

Akane leaned against the cold wall and tightened her legs. She put her healthy arm around them.

Back than everything had been new to her. And she had been incredibly afraid to make something wrong. In the end, after they had killed their target with a Dominator, she had prevented to let his hostage get killed, even if her crime coefficient had risen because of her fear and the cruel things she saw and what the man did to her. And then she had shot Kogami Shinya with her Dominator on Paralyse Mode. Akane couldn´t remember the words he said to her, before turning and trying to shot the woman. But she could remember the anger in Ginoza Nobuchika´s face. And how relieved she had been, because Kogami had even approached her doing.

The cold of the walls entered through the thin material of her gown and laid himself onto her skin, making her shiver more. But she didn´t mind. The memory of her first day of work had been a bad one for a long time. But then worse things came. Yuki´s death, her death right in front of her very own eyes, Kagari´s "disappearance", when Kogami had left her a letter he thought would be his farewell letter to her. And of course the time Akane had heard the gunshot which had taken Makishima Shogo´s life away. This always had been and was her worst memory. Because this gunshot had meant that Kogami had become a murderer and a fugitive. And that she would probably never see him again. Yes, she never was the one lucky one, never had been, would never be. Luck always seemed so far away to someone like her.

Akane laid her head onto her knees and closed her eyes. After three years she still believed that they would meet each other some day again. But what if she would die in this night? What if her haunter would find and kill her? He had called her four months after his disappearance to say that she shouldn´t be that much surprised and sad to hear that his corpse had been retrieved somewhere. After all she didn´t hear anything in that way in the last years and was more than relieved that this meant he was still alive. But Akane never thought, that, if she was the one dying first, Kogami would hear it and how he would react to it. He always thought he would be the one to die first, not her.

Her chest felt suddenly incredibly empty, thinking about Kogami. In her imagination she saw his face, his sharp face, the grey eyes, the wild black hair, and she hoped he was okay and save. And she wondered if he hoped that she was okay too.

For a while she just listened to the noises in front of the old building, the rats running above the floor in the darkness, the silent whispers of the wind, entering from holes in the walls, and tried not to think about Kogami Shinya. But her thoughts consistently went solely to him. Akane knew she had more important things to think about: About her haunter, about finding a safe place, about surviving until the morning ‒ how she should go on from now. But her mind drifted to Kogami, over and over again. She couldn´t help but worry about him. And she couldn´t help but be angry to him for leaving her like this. Like she always had in the last three years.

And after some time she felt asleep, her arm numb, with only the coldness of the air as a blanket and an unwound future ahead.

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**The quote is from David Levien's "City of the Sun".**

**The "unwound future"-part is a reference to the game "Professor Layton and the Unwound Future". And the ones who played it know how important the title drop was in the game.**

**Oh. I hope you had a nice read. And I hope you all will keep following and probably - reviewing!**

**Have a nice day!**

**Momo**

_**- currently working on chapter seven due to other responsibilities and trying not to get that much attracted**_


	5. Shattered in Pieces

**Oh, finally a new chapter!**

**And because someone said my English was really bad, I got a Beta-reader.**

**Thanks, AruuYuda-ShoriKyuyu, for helping me out! You saved me! Thanks!**

**And now a new chapter. Enjoy reading. ^^**

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**Chapter Four:**

**Shattered In Pieces**

_"All I can think about is what she must be doing, and how I wish she were still here."_

* * *

The way back home had been not just incredibly long, but also silent.

Ginoza and Kogami didn´t say a word and Mika didn´t get herself to raise her voice. Also Kogami had been wearing the strange looking helmet for most of the time, which didn´t allow light to shed on someone´s face. With that on, he looked like a robot.

Still, she couldn´t imagine how someone scary like Kogami Shinya got so close to her superior Tsunemori Akane. Akane had always been cheerful, even on the darkest days. She was also very optimistic and so faithful. She got along well with Kunizuka Yayoi, Ginoza, the analyst Karanomori Shion and Moriwaki Naoki, the newest Enforcer of their Division. And of course Mika. Kogami and Ginoza seemed to silently hate each other, or something like that. She didn´t know much of their past, but a big part of it had to lay in the shadows, when they snapped at each other like that. But they seemed to be very close too... For example, Ginoza knew that Kogami would come with them to find Akane. It would be very nice if someone could clear everything to her. After all, she was walking in darkness and ignorance ‒ something she didn´t like.

Karanomori, Kunizuka, Akane and Ginoza knew all of those things, but they kept themselves silent. Fortunately, Mika had Naoki, who was so uninformed like herself. In fact, he was the only one who was truly close to her in the Bureau despite their age difference of thirteen years. Sometimes they were joking about the fact that Akane and Mika were the youngest of their Division and still their Shepherds while the "hunting dogs" were all older than them.

The first year of her work in the Bureau had been nice with Akane, Kunizuka and Karanomori being so friendly to her and her recognising Kunizuka as the one who comforted her back then, after her best friend got killed by Oryo Rikako. Even if Ginoza always lectured her about everything, and even if she was a bit angry at Akane for always putting her together with him. Mika had thought that she did it solely to annoy her. But still her days at work first became warm when Naoki was transferred to them.

Mika didn´t have any siblings and she barely saw her parents. They always had to work and because of that, she had been sent to Oso Academy, which was not only a school but a boarding school. After Oryo Rikako killed Kawarazaki Kagami and Okubo Yoshika, she didn´t have any friends left. So she had been really happy with Naoki and she began to get along really well as friends with him. The Inspectors of the other Divisions always looked at them darkly or shook their heads whenever Mika and Naoki crossed ways with them. Most Inspectors thought that it wasn´t good to befriend Enforcers, they were "hunting dogs" after all. So she had been sad at first when she thought that they could never be friends. But Akane told her that it was fine to be friends and get along well with an Enforcer. Mika had always been thankful to Akane for many things, but this one had been the most important.

Even sadder Mika had been after they found out about Akane´s disappearance. Like Kogami said, she wasn´t someone who would run away for no reason. And it was more than just fishy – that Akane entered her apartment but never left and suddenly just disappeared, vanished into thin air.

She hoped that she was okay wherever she was. Truly hoped.

* * *

They had reached Japan after two very long hours of nerve-wracking silence. They had to secretly get to Tokyo because it wasn´t safe for Kogami to walk around with this helmet in bright sunlight. As they finally arrived at a relatively old, simple house, quite far from the city, Mika collapsed into a chair, exhausted.

This house once belonged to Ginoza´s father, Masaoka Tomomi, also a former Enforcer of Division One. And here Ginoza decided to hide Kogami. This place was far enough from the city and completely offline. Also, no scanners were in the immediate area and nobody would know that someone lived here, so nobody could secretly do a hue check on him. Nobody would just sneak in and try to rob something or just sleep there for a night, because everybody knew that this house held nothing expensive and that this was a private place under the supervision of Division One of the Public Safety Bureau. So, in fact, this was the safest place Kogami could hide.

Mika just had enough rest right before Ginoza told her that it was time to go back before someone noticed their absence. Annoyed, she looked at him. Sometimes he forgot that she was the Inspector and he the Enforcer, not the other way around. She just sighed and stood up, even saying goodbye to Kogami who no longer looked that much scary without the helmet.

As they went she took one last look at Kogami, who was watching them from a window. And she shivered as she saw his grey eyes which were as hard as stone.

* * *

She was gone.

Tsunemori Akane was truly gone. Disappeared, missing, lost.

He still couldn´t quite understand this. How could this happen? She was an Inspector of the Public Safety Bureau, not someone who lived far, far away like an eremite. And she also wasn´t someone who would get kidnapped easily. She probably would fight a bit and then run away, going back to the MWPSB. But then she would be there and not missing. Also, the things Inspector Shimotsuki Mika had told him just didn´t fit together. How did Akane manage to get missing in her own apartment? With no one getting near her?

Kogami had investigated much cases but nothing seemed so impossible like this one. And unfortunately it was the one about Akane´s disappearance.

He couldn´t help but hit a nearby wall as hard as he could. She could be anything in this moment ‒ dead, alive, tortured, starving, lost, in the middle of the ocean... a bit like Schrödinger´s cat. For a moment his heart skipped to a surprise as he thought about her being dead. He always thought he would die before her. That she would be the one grieving above a corpse, not he.

He was really surprised when he found himself worrying so much about her. Over the last three years, he often caught himself thinking about her. What she was doing in this moment, how she was going. But he never felt so worried about her like in this second.

Of course, before that, Kogami assumed she would be safe.

It quite surprised him that he was wishing Akane to be somewhere safe so badly; that if she were in trouble, she would be able to escape and find a safe place to hide, not being tortured or even dead. She had been the first one to see him not only as an Enforcer, a filthy "hunting dog", but as a person. For her, he had always been a partner, not just a dog, a will-less machine, but a human. And with that attitude of hers, she managed to remind him what he always intended to do ‒ being a detective to protect, not to bring someone down. Kogami had always liked her and had been thankful because of that.

Akane had always been a bit different from other people, he knew that. She saw things differently and couldn´t quite understand why others didn´t share her point of view. _How could Enforcers be anything else than humans?_

With her, he felt like someone. So it shouldn't be surprising that he worried and cared about her so much.

Kogami slipped down onto a chair and grabbed the helmet, lying on the table in front of him. He always wanted to get rid of this device, this device Makishima Shogo had created. But he also had known that if he failed doing this someone could find it and it would be easier to track him, so he kept the helmet. And yet he was even relieved he had kept it. He put the helmet back onto the table and looked at the window, at the scene beyond it. After all those years he was finally back in Japan, something he never imagined.

Sighing, he leaned back, remembering the talk he and Ginoza had as the girl, Mika, had fallen asleep for a while.

* * *

_"So you grew closer to Inspector Tsunemori, Gino?" Kogami asked through the helmet which warped his voice slightly. Shimotsuki Mika was asleep for five minutes now and had already begun to snore._

_"Hm?" Ginoza turned to face him, even he actually couldn´t see his face._

_"You said earlier that you and Tsunemori grew closer over the last years", he repeated._

_Ginoza frowned. "So... is this the only thing that keeps you busy?"_

_"I´m just curious about what did happen in the last three years in the MWPSB. For example, why you don´t wear glasses anymore."_

_He raised one eyebrow. "You know that I never needed glasses, I wore them to cover my eyes a bit."_

_"Because you didn´t like your face, especially your eyes. So ‒ why the sudden change, Gino?"_

_For a while Ginoza was quiet. "I cleared everything with my dad."_

_Even if was for just a second, Kogami smiled under his helmet._

_"And", Ginoza went on. "Tsunemori and I are a couple."_

_Because of the helmet, he couldn´t see the genuine shock which took over Kogami´s expression. Ginoza never told jokes. He even doubted that his old friend had the capability to joke. So he was saying the truth. _He was saying the truth.

_"But you said that you _didn´t_ befriend her", he replied, trying not to sound shocked and astonished. His body began to feel numb. The serious look on Ginoza´s face didn´t help._

_"I did not _befriend_ her, yes. We didn´t become friends, we became a couple. Why do you think I did some crazy research other the last months to track her down? Because I´m in love with her. I feared Akane ran away to you because she didn´t want to marry me anymore. So I searched for you in order to convince Akane that she doesn´t have to be afraid, that she _didn´t_ make the wrong decision when she said ´yes´ as I proposed to her. But now, I´m just worried about her."_

_Kogami suddenly felt really dizzy and sick. His head spun as he tried to imagine ‒ _of all people_ ‒ Akane and _Ginoza_ as a couple, as bride and groom. Fortunately he wore the helmet, so Ginoza wasn´t able to see his expression._

_The last time he saw them, he had finally acknowledged her as a fellow Inspector and they slowly started to get along. How the hell did they become a couple in three damn years? If he hadn´t worn the helmet, Kogami knew, he probably had vomited onto the floor. Imagining Ginoza and Akane, damn it, as a couple really was... heavy. Heavy and kind of creepy for him. It took him some time to handle the new information he got until he was able to say something again. After all, they were his former colleagues and Ginoza was an old school friend. And he couldn´t say that he imagined them to grow old on their own and die alone. In fact, he was even a bit relieved that Akane wasn´t going to marry someone he didn´t know or someone he didn´t know would ever hurt her. And Ginoza definitely told him the truth, he never joked, after all._

_Kogami swallowed to drown the dryness in his throat. "Congratulations, Gino", he said. "But how... how could you imagine doing this? You´re an Enforcer and you will never be able to leave the Bureau without an Inspector. Also I don´t think Kasei or the System would approve of your relationship."_

_The Enforcer shrugged. "That is the thing Akane is worried about. Even if we told Kasei about everything and she allowed the marriage and everything after a while of thinking."_

_Again, Kogami swallowed. That Ginoza kept calling her "Akane" didn´t help either._

_"Congratulations", he repeated. "I´m happy for you. Finally you can give Pops the grandchildren he wanted ever since, even if he´s already dead. His ghost will be relieved and full of bliss."_

_"I´m kidding", Ginoza said suddenly, his green eyes flashing up sharply._

_Kogami blinked. "You can´t be. You _never_ told a joke"_

_He shrugged again. "I learned this in the last three years. I really wanted to see your face as I told you I was going to marry Inspector Tsunemori. But your body language and the fact that you tried to keep your voice from shaking said enough for me."_

_Kogami wanted to reply, but Ginoza didn´t leave him any time._

_"You have no idea what happened in the last three years. You really haven´t. But I wanted to tell you one thing: if we find Inspector Tsunemori, you shouldn´t expect her to welcome you with open arms. Your departure kind of changed and destroyed her. And I can´t say. She rarely didn´t look like she wants to hunt you down. Not to see you again, but to knock your stuffing out of you."_

_"Aren´t we talking about Tsunemori?"_

_He glared at Kogami. "I don´t know how she will react if she sees you. Nobody knows. But I just wanted to warn you: It can be that she won´t be happy, but she will finally have the chance to be mad at you."_

* * *

**The quote is from Pittacus Lore's "I am Number Four". And amusingly this is the fourth chapter.**

**Also, because I think no one got the allusion but myself: The "Vanished into thin air"-part was a reference to Gordon Edgley's book "Into Thin Air" (Skulduggery Pleasant).**

**Thank you all for reading and it would be nice if you would also not only read but also review.**

**Nice day, guys!**

**Momo**

_**- currently working on chapter ten and also being incredibly busy with other things**_


	6. Swann's Way

**Voilà. Aquí. Da. Here. Ecco. The longed for next chapter of "Next"! (What a silly word play... )**

**AruuYuda-ShoriKyuyu finished the chapter by yesterday but I only saw it by today. (Different time zones.) And again she did a brilliant job. You all should thank her! (Without her the story would be full of silly mistakes... )**

**Thanks, Aruu!**

**So. New chapter, eh? The last time Kogami was tricked by Ginoza and now they're going to search desperately for clues.**

**Beware of silly dialogues and a kind of "gooey" part at the end...**

**... and a "past"-part with Akane!**

**See me failing terribly to do a "poem" and Mika being more helpful than in canon. (Canon Mika -.-)**

**All this awaits you in this chapter.**

**And now: Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

**Swann´s Way**

_"Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life"_

* * *

He could remember the time he said her name the first and only time. It had been nothing more as an impulse back than, seeing her on the back of a truck, a truck driven by a maniac.

Akane had always been so reckless, but of all the things she had ever done, this had been the most reckless. And every time this memory crossed his mind, the memory where he had thought for a split second that she could have been gone forever, that Makishima could have killed her before Kogami reached her, he felt something like he did back then when he had seen Akane at the back of the truck and already imagined Makishima killing her, a grin all over his face. It had been a cold, icy feeling ‒ as his heart had turned to ice, lying heavily in his chest, slowly freezing his body. And in this split second he imagined a world without her and his frozen heart cracked because of it. And this feeling hadn´t vanished, his heart shattering with every step, until he finally reached her, until he had seen her lying unconsciously in the high grass, injured, but alive. The ice on his heart and body had slowly melted as he had picked her up, feeling her body heat on his fingertips, and carried her into safety.

Kogami sighed as he rolled down from his bed. In what kind of danger did she drag herself into? He stood up, another sigh escaping his mouth as he stretched. He didn´t get that much sleep last night. His mind always drifted to the case and not into sleeping.

He went to the bathroom, undressed himself and stepped into the shower. For a few minutes he just let the warm water fall upon his body, letting the heat of the water sink into his skin, burning the coldness away which came with the memory of the last time he had seen Tsunemori Akane and the thought that it could have been the last time forever. Then he began to wash himself properly and stepped out of the shower, towel wrapped around him. As he dried himself and began to dress, Kogami thought about the last time he had been in Japan. He had last seen Akane on the day he killed Makishima Shogo, but he had departed a few weeks later ‒ a few days after Masaoka´s funeral.

Kogami had been there, at the funeral. In fact, this had been the only reason why he didn´t leave immediately back then. It had been a perfectly fine day, a sunny day, a beautiful day. And definitely not the day for something so depressing as a funeral.

While Division One and other people of the Bureau silently grieved upon their lost friend and colleague, Kogami had been watching from a safe distance, avoiding to look towards Akane´s direction. Because he had known, she didn´t only mourn because of Masaoka but also of him ‒ the other colleague she had lost, not to death but to betrayal. And he hadn´t been ready to see the grief she had for him.

Of course, he had betrayed her. He promised her to stay a detective and not killing Makishima and he had broken both, even leaving her behind. This time without a letter.

_"It can be that she won´t be happy, but she will finally have the chance to be mad at you,"_ he heard Ginoza´s voice from yesterday in his head. And Kogami had to admit that if she would release her anger at him, be mad at him, want to knock his stuffing out, he would let her. After all, all her hatred towards him would be reasonable.

He ate breakfast and then walked around the living room floor like a cat. Akane was smart. Even if she was kidnapped or forced to flee, she would leave something, something that would help find her. Or something that would help her searchers understand why she was kidnapped, or why she had to flee. Even if it was not a letter, a note, but something more subtle. Like her own notes of her current situation, like a diary or a file. But then this diary or these files couldn´t just be put anywhere. It should be put in some place where someone would actually work hard for it to be seen.

Something in his head was trying to get his attention, but he wasn´t able to grab onto it. He only could when Inspector Shimotsuki Mika and Ginoza entered the safe house.

"Oi, Gino, is my apartment in the MWPSB still there?" he asked straightaway.

"No," Ginoza answered, frowning at the sudden question.

"And my belongings? Did someone pack them into boxes or were they burned, trashed or given away?"

"I have no idea why you are asking me this," he replied, sounding annoyed.

"When I departed, I left something here. And it held something addressed to Tsunemori. I think, if she left us any clues, it is possible that she left it at the same place as I did. Because she probably assumed that you would go after me first, with you thinking she went away, wanting to see me. If she did leave clues there, I could tell you where that spot is," Kogami explained. _After all I didn´t leave her nothing_, he thought in relief._ I´ve just almost forgotten it._

Ginoza crossed his arms in front of his chest. "This sounds a bit random to me."

"I don´t think so," Mika said. "I think she could have truly done this."

The Enforcer frowned at her. "Since when did you know her so well?"

"I don´t. But to me it sounds like something she would do. Also she was there when we put Kogami-san´s stuff into boxes."

Kogami turned to Mika. "Where did you put my things?"

"Ginoza-san took them all and... " Her face lit up. "... and took them to this house because he didn´t have that much place in his Enforcer's flat."

His lips crooked into a grin.

* * *

After Mika and Ginoza showed him where the boxes exactly were, they carried them into the living room.

"For what are we exactly going to search?" asked Ginoza when every box was in the living room.

"A book," Kogami told them. "_Swann´s Way_ by Marcel Proust, a hardcover."

"_Swann´s Way_?" Mika repeated. "I think I read it once when I was in school. Isn´t it the first installment of a series? Hm... Something with 'time'?"

"_Swann´s Way_,_ In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower_,_ The Guermantes Way_, _Sodom and Gomorrah_, _The Prisoner_, _The Fugitive_, and lastly, _Finding Time Again_ are the six books forming the_ In Search of Lost Time_ series, yes," Kogami answered, nodding.

"Of all things, why _Swann´s Way_?"

"'_Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life_'. It´s meaningful," he told her, his eyes serious.

"Enough unnecessary talking," Ginoza said. "Kogami has around one hundred books... "

"In fact, I have three hundred forty-seven books," Kogami dropped in.

"... and we have to find only one among this mess of boxes and books. So we should better start now," the Enforcer continued, glaring at his old friend.

Mika sighed.

* * *

"I can´t believe a single person could have so much books," Mika said, looking through box number twenty-seven. They had numbered every box, containing books, so they didn´t have to search through one twice. They also grouped the boxes for an easier search.

"I found _Finding Time Again_, but not _Swann´s Way_. I don´t even know half of these books. I know _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ and _1984_. Also _Gulliver´s Travels_. But what is _The Woman in White_?" She shook her head. "You could easily open your own library, Kogami-san"

"_The Woman in White_ is a mystery novel and the very first 'sensation novel'," Kogami told her, focused to search through box number fifty-three.

Mika looked up. "What is a 'sensation novel'?"

"I thought you attended Oso Academy," Ginoza said.

Kogami looked up to, frowning over the mess of boxes to the young Inspector. "Oso Academy? And you came to the Bureau three years ago? So you were there during the Oryo Rikako case?"

Mika´s brown eyes darkened. "Yes. In fact, my friend got killed by Oryo for her last sculpture, along with Yoshika."

"My bad."

"It was a long time ago, it´s okay. Also ‒ Oryo´s long dead."

Kogami briefly nodded. _Funahara Yuki got killed three years ago too. Did Tsunemori get over it, like Shimotsuki did?_ he thought, then dropped it and turned back to box fifty-three.

"It was a genre, popular in Great Britain during the 1860s and 1870s. It drew on gothic and romantic genres, along with melodramatic and Newgate novels, and notably followed the Industrial Revolution. Sensation novels also were somewhat abstract, following scenarios that wrestled with social anxieties of the Victorian era."

Mika, who also had turned back to her boxes, now twenty-eight, looked back up. "Huh?"

"You asked what sensation novels were. Here you have your answer."

"Oh... uh... thank you... "

After they looked through all seventy boxes, they still haven´t found _Swann´s Way_.

"I can´t believe it," Mika groaned. "It isn´t here. We did this for _nothing_." She stood up and stretched.

"You shouldn´t complain that much, Shimotsuki," Ginoza told her, glaring. "You´re the Inspector after all."

"But it_ was_ somewhat pointless..." she protested and wanted to add something as she suddenly frowned.

"I _think_ I know this _Swann´s Way_ from somewhere else than school," Mika said. "But I didn´t quite remember it. But now I_ do_." She turned to the others.

"On the day Ginoza-san, Akane-san and I packed everything you owned into boxes, Kogami-san, Akane-san picked something up as Ginoza-san left a room to bring the next box to the car. I was busy putting all the papers and files together and into some boxes, but I looked up for a moment and wondered that she wasn´t putting it away, but she flipped it open and began to read. Okay, there´s nothing unusual in reading a book, I thought and turned back to my work. But in the moment, I now realise, I looked up and saw Akane-san reading this book, I briefly glimpsed onto the cover and it said _Swann´s Way_"

Kogami pulled himself to his feet. "So you mean she didn´t put it back after she left her message in it, but... "

"... but she kept it," Mika continued, nodding. Ginoza rolled his eyes in annoyance.

* * *

Kogami Shinya had never been in Tsunemori Akane´s apartment. Until yet he didn't have a reason to visit her ‒ he had been an Enforcer back then. Enforcers could only leave the Bureau with an Inspector. Also she had never invited him. Still he had imagined how she lived ‒ what kinds of holograms lit up her walls and floors, what books filled her shelves, if she kept pictures of family and friends on her desk and so on. But as they arrived the next day at Akane´s apartment ‒ yesterday, it had been too late for anything ‒ everything was cold and dark because of the missing holograms.

Shimotsuki Mika turned the holograms on and the whole flat lit up ‒ Victor Horta´s Hotel Tassel, Kogami knew ‒ and a pink jellyfish appeared in front of them.

"Akane!" it cried out in joy. "You´re ba- " It cut off, blinking at them.

"Oh. Welcome Inspector Shimotsuki, Enforcer Ginoza and... " Its gaze turned to Kogami.

"Kogami Shinya, I was never here, so... ," he said, putting down the helmet.

"Kogami!" the jellyfish ‒ Candy was the name ‒ shouted and danced blissfully. "I know! I know! Akane talked about you a lot!"

He laid the helmet on a table and froze by the jellyfish´s words, but he didn´t respond to it. He just turned to Ginoza and Mika.

"Is everything like it was the day Tsunemori disappeared? Or did you rearrange things?"

Mika glared at him. "Everything is like she had left it, Kogami-san. We´re not _amateurs_"

The way she looked at him with this serious face let him smile for a second.

"Of course," he said.

* * *

Candy, the jellyfish, guided him to Akane´s bedroom. It was bright and the holograms were simply beautiful here. Her bed wasn´t made and her desk was messy too. Like every room in the apartment, this also had no fighting marks.

As Kogami went to the desk, Candy´s eyes followed him. He picked up a framed picture from the desk, slightly dusted. It showed a happily smiling Akane along with a even happier Funahara Yuki and another friend, he didn´t know, who just smiled lightly. It was nice seeing her like this ‒ with her slightly clumsy smile, all happy and safe. _Safe_. Suddenly his throat went dry.

"I thought you left the country," Candy said and Kogami flinched. He hadn´t expected it to speak to him all of sudden.

"She was all heart-broken as you left," it added, looking at Kogami who had put the picture back and turned to the jellyfish.

"Always wondered if you were okay, even had nightmares about you, screamed your name."

His back stiffened. _Screamed your name._

"I´m happy you´re finally back. So when she returns she will finally stop to cry."

"It could be that she wouldn´t be happy, but finally would have the chance to be mad at you."

"Do you know where Tsunemori kept her books? Especially a book named_ Swann´s Way_?" Kogami asked, wanting to stop the pink one to describe to him Akane´s despair, even if it was more than ridiculous for him to speak to a _jellyfish_.

"_Swann´s Way_?" It tilted his head. "She always looked onto the same page and always looked sad while doing it, but she never told me why. And Akane kept it under her pillow."

Kogami went to Akane´s messy bed and put his hand under her pillow. As he felt the familiar shape of a book, he grabbed it. Then he breathed deeply and flipped it open to the page he hid his message for Akane three years prior.

* * *

_The light made her hair seem lighter as it was, while colouring her skin golden and her eyes like amber, as she flipped the book open and thumbed through it._

_It had belonged, no, _belonged_ to Kogami Shinya. Today she, the new Inspector Shimotsuki Mika and Ginoza Nobuchika had put his old things away, cleaning his old Enforcer-apartment until there weren´t any marks left that someone had ever lived there. It had saddened her to see his old home so bare and cold. But the thought of the book in her bag had warmed her._

_Of course, she hadn´t any right to keep it. When Ginoza asked her if she wanted anything from Kogami´s things, she refused. She didn´t want anything which unnecessarily reminded her of her former partner, but this book was different. Because he solely left it for her._

_As Tsunemori Akane had entered his room along with Mika and Ginoza, she immediately noticed some differences: Papers were rearranged, some things gone, for example the picture of Kogami and Sasayama. It had sent her a stitch through her heart as she realised that he had been here for one last time before he left forever. And that he didn´t leave her any letter like the last time._

_But as she noticed this book, this book whose one page had a little, almost invisible, fold on the right corner, her heart had begun to warm up. She had already had some of his books in her hand and none of them had folds or scratches. So he had definitely put this fold on this page. He had done it in purpose. _He had done it in purpose.

_And with excitement running in her veins she had flipped the book open as she did now. With a sad smile on her lips she let her index finger of her right hand fly over the words Kogami had added for her._

_"It´s time for sleeping, Akane!" Candy yelled, turning the lights off, and Akane crawled under her blanket, the book pressed against her chest. And as she closed her eyes the words Kogami left her shone before her. Delicate, golden,_ beautiful_._

_"Now are the woods all black,_

_But still the sky is blue._

_And for thee,_

_My lady, my lady of the deepest of reds,_

_Red like purest blood, dried on the palest skin,_

_I offer the most genuine of apologies,_

_For me I´m solely a pollard and thou a queen"_

_"I take it," she whispered, falling asleep and not dreaming of a place where the sun shone brighter, the sky was bluer, the songs of the birds were lovelier, but of a place where they could meet again, when she could tell him her answer and he would never leave her again._

* * *

**The quote is by Marcel Proust but Shinya has already told you guys... so...**

**Also Shinya actually left "Swann's Way" on the deck of the ship he used to flee. I kind of mixed it up with "he left it in his room before he left". Sorry. But let us just think that he had two copies and took one with him which he left on the ship and left the second one for Akane in his room, okay? Okay?**

**Yeah, I know. The "poem" is terrible. The first two lines are from "Swann's Way" the next five are by me.**

**"Pollard" is the archaic word for "an animal that has lost its horns or cast its antlers", by the way, and I thought that it would fit...**

**Also "_italic_"-passages are always passages set in the past!**

**The next chapter will come... probably in December or January. It depends.**

**And because of those huge gaps between the chapters I decided to do little "previews" for every chapter to span the time.**

**~Preview~**

~1~

_"It´s easier to get killed than to disappear"_, he suddenly remembered the words Kagari Shusei said once during the Talisman Case and slightly shivered over it. _Hopefully, this is not the case for Tsunemori __‒__ is it?._

~2~

"I thought Gino took all my things", Kogami said, looking over to his old friend.

~3~

"Not for Inspector Tsunemori", Mika said. "I will ask Inspector Kahara of Division Three then because of these cases"

~4~

_Her hands shook as she put the report down which she secretly copied today. Another odd case._

~5~

She leaned back. She needed a plan to go back.

~6~

He remembered her, the little twenty-year-old girl on her first day of work. The large brown eyes, the short brown hair. Her skin had been pale. But she could look totally different today.

**~Preview~**

**Interpret away! :)**

**Six little sneak peaks. I think the number of sneak peaks will variate and sometimes I will reveal the chapter's name and sometimes not...**

**All the sneak peaks will be in the next chapter - probably a bit fixed by Aruu -, also they are in order. This time. The next time they couldn't...**

**:)**

**Inspector Kahara isn't a canon character, by the way.**

**And Mika will get more "screen time" when she goes to Division Three. And she_ is_ more helpful than Canon-Mika, I would have never guessed that Canon-Mika is so... yeah, you hopefully know what I mean. Even if I don't like Canon-Mika, I loved her for **

_***spoiler for Season 2 Episode 5* **_

**investigating after Sakuya. (I always knew that he was evil and I was sooo happy because of it in the last episode. I hope he dies a horrible death.) **

_***spoiler end***_

**Oh, and before I forget it... Hola anonimo. Gracias por tu crítica. Aprendo español en la escuela y espero que mi español no este horrible. Pues mi instiuto tiene un colegio hermanado en Colombia :) ¡Ojalá que te guste mi historia!**

**See you guys until the next chapter!**

**Momo**

_**- currently working on "Criminally Asymptomatic" at the first place, but didn't forget about "Next" and working on its twelfth chapter**_


	7. No Light, No Light

**It's time for uploads! :D**

**The nice Aruu has finished her beta-read by Sunday but I have been just a bit too lazy to upload it already... sorry.**

**However, she did a great job and I'm really thankful that she's doing this for me.^^**

**(Texts in _italic_ are _always_ past-events.)**

**And now: Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Six:**

**No Light, No Light**

_"You can't choose what stays and what fades away."_

* * *

Kogami ran his finger over the words he had added back then. The ink around his words were blurred and told him that she had cried over these words. Then he took the piece of paper she had put between the pages and closed the book before he returned it to its place under her pillow. Candy followed him as he joined Mika and Ginoza in Akane´s living room.

He waved the piece of paper. "Found it," he said and then handed it to Mika.

"It´s only an address," she frowned, passing the note to Ginoza.

"Exactly," Kogami replied and picked up his helmet. "And we are going to go there now."

* * *

Akane´s little safe house was nothing more than a little and unimpressive flat, a bit outside of the city. A bit like her own appearance: small, fragile, wide-eyed. Nobody would think that Tsunemori Akane with her delicate body would be an Inspector or one of the most reckless and impressive persons Kogami knew. The first time he saw her, he thought she would be just some little girl who could never be capable to be a detective due to shyness and missing faith in herself. But he had been proved wrong. She was more than suited for this job. Even if she didn´t have so much faith in herself and her appearance misleading, she was strong and quite skilled. Kogami had never thought they would find Makishima and him in so little time. No one could say anything else other than that Akane really improved from her first day at work.

When Mika turned the holograms on, the flat was still cold. The walls were now painted all in black, narrow grey stripes in huge intervals rising from the ground to the top, all over the black wall. The floor seemed to be made of dark wood and the lights filled everything with sickening pale-white light. Kogami couldn´t believe Akane choose this as her little secret place. But probably because of this she did: nobody would guess this little, dark apartment was hers.

They skimmed through the rooms. One was completely empty, one was a small kitchen, another one seemed to be a living room full of boxes and papers. Here, the holograms didn´t fill the walls and floor, revealing that everything was in fact dark grey. A large sofa and a small table were the only pieces of furniture, surrounded by boxes, files, papers... The wall opposite the door was also full of notes and reminded Kogami of his own apartment in his Bureau.

"Wow. Seems as Akane-san secretly worked on a case," Mika saying the thoughts of them all aloud.

Ginoza stepped into the room, grabbing a file from the sofa.

"I can´t believe Tsunemori would do something like this," he said, already seeing through the file.

Mika and Kogami also stepped in. Mika knelt in front of a box.

"Half of the food in the cupboards and the fridge were already ruined. Akane-san didn´t return to this place for a long time. So we don´t have to seek for hidden clues, right?" Mika asked, ripping the box open because it was strangely sealed and not marked like the others.

Kogami picked up a pile of papers. "Even if this is right, it could be that Tsunemori left some clues in advance, in case she disappears."

_"It´s easier to get killed than to disappear,"_ he suddenly remembered the words Kagari Shusei said once during the Talisman Case and slightly shivered over it. _Hopefully, this is not the case for Tsunemori ‒ is it?_

He heard Mika sighing.

"Huh?" she said then. "What´s this?"

Ginoza and Kogami looked up and he immediately recognised the old grey coat Mika was holding up. After all, there had been a time this had been his.

"I thought Gino took all my things," Kogami said, looking over to his old friend. "Or was I fed with false information?"

Ginoza shook his head. "No. I... I gave Tsunemori the coat."

Kogami lifted an eyebrow.

"I thought she wanted something from you, even if she said otherwise," Ginoza said. "I never imagined that she would put it in a box and seal it, so she wouldn´t have to see it anymore."

"When did you become so sentimental, Gino?" Kogami asked, going to Mika to take the coat. Its material felt soft under his fingers, but cold and untouched.

Ginoza turned away. "As I told you we grew closer."

Kogami gave him another look, but as he still avoided him, he just laid the coat onto the sofa and went back to the pile of papers.

"These are all simple cases of natural death," Ginoza said after a while. "Nothing unusual. Heartaches, long life... " He shook his head. "Division Three had the responsibility to investigate all this 'cases', because the dependants couldn´t believe that they were actually dead. But there isn´t that much to investigate when someone just died those ways. I can´t believe that these cases are so important for Tsunemori."

"Probably she found something odd in these cases," Mika suggested. "She always had a natural intuition for these kinds of things."

"I agree," Kogami said. "Tsunemori wouldn´t spend her time with such trivial stuff like this. Also she wouldn´t have never got into trouble because of_usual deaths_." He looked over to Ginoza. "Do you know if the deceased had some kind of connection?"

Again, he shook his head. "I have no idea. As I said, this was Division Three´s responsibility, not Division One´s. I just know that the members of Division Three were kind of annoyed because of these 'cases', because they weren´t actual cases."

"Not for Akane-san," Mika said. "I will ask Inspector Kahara of Division Three about these cases."

"Yes, you should," Kogami nodded. "And I think we don´t have to search for anything here anymore. Everything Tsunemori collected is about these Division Three cases."

* * *

_For her, these cases had always been nothing but odd._

_Dimness filled the room and, in fact, the whole apartment. She didn´t mind. Her eyesight had always been very good. Also she had accustomed herself to this dim light in the last months._

_Her hands shook as she put the report down which she secretly copied today. Another odd case. Another victim of her nameless enemy. And she would be the next._

_She got to her feet quickly. She would be the next. She would be the next one to die. The report confirmed this. Her nameless enemy knew it. He or she knew what nobody else knew. And this would be her end._

_But she would never give up or run away. She had a duty, she had a job. She had to fulfill it. Just because she would be the next victim on her enemy´s long list didn´t mean she should be scared and go into hiding. Even if she would be the last one in the line._

_She had time. Her enemy didn´t know everything as she did as well. But one of the things she knew was that she had time. Because he or she didn´t kill in such short intervals._

_She hated herself for having taken so long to understand the deeper meaning of these cases. Even if she didn´t know the whole story behind everything or the culprit´s identity, she knew his or her pattern or why he or she chose these people as victims._

_If she had realised it earlier, she would've had more time. But now she didn't have it anymore. Her time was running away. And if her timer finally stopped, this wouldn´t just be her own end._

* * *

She hated it.

Akane had gotten more time as she ran away. But she couldn´t go back. Not now. Even if she saw the culprit´s face.

It deviled her that she could do nothing. That she had to hide. Oh, she never felt so useless before. But if she would go now, the culprit would kill her immediately. And this time for good. Her death would mean the end of her enemy´s path of revenge.

Akane looked through the window, but she couldn´t see anything because eventually someone built a wall exactly on the other side of the window. She hadn´t seen light in the last few months. No real light. The light of the single bulb which hung naked on the ceiling was a pale white which gave her a sick feeling.

She leaned back. She needed a plan to go back. To face the culprit. To bring her enemy down. Akane knew that she could just go and tell everybody everything. But that would mean that she had to reveal her secret. And if her secret would be revealed...

Akane closed her eyes. She had made a promise. Okay, not exactly a promise. And because of the sake of this promise she couldn´t do it. Because of that she needed another plan. A plan where she wouldn't have to reveal her secret.

But until she had one, she had to hide and ask herself when she could see the light again.

* * *

He hated it.

Kogami had gotten more clues about her disappearance and still he wandered in darkness about her whereabouts. She could be dead now and he wouldn´t know. Probably would never.

Tomorrow Mika and Ginoza would go ask this Inspector Kahara - he didn´t know her‒ about these cases Akane was interested in. With the information they would gain tomorrow they could get closer to the solution. But they wouldn´t.

They weren´t sure if they would get information and if the ones they would get would be helpful.

Suddenly he hated the fact that he had killed Makishima Shogo. If he hadn't done it, he would probably still have been an Enforcer under Akane. And then she wouldn´t probably be gone. She would still be there, because he wouldn´t allow her to disappear. But he had killed Makishima and left Japan, leaving Akane behind.

Kogami closed his eyes and tried to reminisce. It had been long time ago when he had last seen her. The picture of her and her friends he had seen yesterday were also three years old.

He remembered her, the little twenty-year-old girl on her first day of work. The large brown eyes, the short brown hair. Her skin had been pale. But she could totally look different today. And he could probably never know how she looked now.

He could remember the day she had shouted at Ginoza. The day when they had gone to the tattooed man. When they had hunted Makishima in the NONA Tower and she had been shot in the leg. When he had woken up, finding her by his side. When she had been clinging to the back of the truck. When his heart stopped beating for a second. And when he strained himself he could hear her voice in his head. But not her laughter. He had never heard her laugh.

He remembered himself writing the "farewell" letter to her. How he had done it over and over again to find the right words. And still didn´t in the end.

He could see the stern look in Akane´s large eyes when she had told him she wanted to bring Makishima down too, because she wanted to avenge Yuki as he wanted to avenge Sasayama. And he could hear her crying when she still couldn´t kill Makishima.

When he thought about it, he didn´t even know her. Kogami didn´t know her favourite colour, or what she loved to eat the most. Why she couldn´t swim or why she had decided to be a detective. He knew nothing about her hobbies, her interests, her family. Nothing. Everything he remembered about Tsunemori Akane was their work together. And when Akane would die... if she was dead already... everything about her would fade away. And slowly his memories would do this too. And she would be dead for real. But he didn´t want her to die or to fade away. He wanted her to be safe.

Kogami kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see the light flushing though the windows.

* * *

**The quote is a line of "No Light, No Light" - a song by Florence and the Machine. Because of this, I have chosen this chapter name.:)**

**Did you see the trailer for the movie? It's great and _full of spoilers_. Who doesn't like spoilers, shouldn't watch the trailer.**

**(I still can't believe that they have released such a trailer while Season 2 is still airing. I mean... they showed not only Akane as characters but other too, we know or not know. And this reveals pretty much who will live and who will die by the end of Season 2.)**

**However... I have no idea when the next chapter comes. (Probably in January?)**

**And because of that I have a few more snippets and teasers for you again...**

**~Preview~**

~1~

She entered the tower and walked to Division One´s office. When she entered Moriwaki Naoki looked up at her and smiled, his dark brown eyes shining, as he stood up and walked towards her. He was the only one in the office.

~2~

"We know that you and Inspector Akane share are a little secret you try to keep away from us and Shimotsuki."

~3~

"Inspector Shimotsuki, Enforcer Ginoza, why do I have the pleasure of meeting the two of you?" Kohara said in the melodic voice of hers.

~4~

Ginoza looked over her shoulders and frowned. "I skimmed through this report three or four months ago, but I can´t remember this."

~5~

_"I´m a friend of your sister and I need your help."_

**~Preview~**

**Interpret away. :)**

**(_Italic_ = past; past = in-story timeline - two or less months ago)**

**Also, I have published a story called "Letters" which is set in the "Next"-Universe. :D The story is meant to help bridging the time until the next "Next" chapters. Also, there will be a collection of stories called "Before" (How original, right? But I wanted to have a schema.), which will be surprisingly also a part of the "Next"-Universe. You are free to check them out. But of course, I won't forget about "Next"! I finally finished chapter 12 and just rewrite some parts of the other chapters, fix stuff etc., before I go and write chapter 13 which will be incredibly hard to write because it's a... I don't know what it is.**

**Okay, enough.**

**Until next time!**

**Momo**

_**- currently working on the stuff listed above**_


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